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Channel Tunnel to reopen this morning after fire PDF Print E-mail
Written by Vascoingles   
Saturday, 13 September 2008

Channel Tunnel to reopen this morning after fire -  but Eurostar warns of lengthy delays

 

 

 The Channel Tunnel fire, finally put out yesterday after raging for around 20 hours, will leave behind it a legacy of travel chaos.

Only after the last flames were extinguished at 1pm could inspectors travel to the seat of the blaze seven miles from France to assess the damage.

It was announced last night that the tunnel would reopen to freight immediately.

Limited passenger services were due to restart at 6am this morning after the opening of one of the two main tunnels.

The tunnel's operator said it had run two test trains through the south tunnel from Calais to Folkestone and was running two more in the other direction.

However, it was unclear when services would return to normal, and Eurostar bosses were urging people to travel only if necessary.

A spokesman also warned that most journeys would take an extra 30 minutes.

She said: 'We hope that we can improve things quickly, but we don't have a timescale to return to normal as yet.'

Hundreds of British travellers have already been forced to sleep on trains or pay for taxis to ferry ports to continue their journeys.

Huge tailbacks built up on Kent roads, with 2,000 lorries forced to queue on the M20 and other routes.

More than 30,000 Eurostar passengers on 50 trains had been due to travel through the tunnel yesterday alone and had to seek alternatives after being told they would receive refunds.

Eurotunnel, which saw its shares fall, is well aware that a similar fire in 1996, two years after the tunnel opened, led to huge disruption.

The fire broke out in a freight train carrying lorries from Britain to France on Thursday afternoon, and ended up incinerating 26 rail trucks as temperatures reached 1,800f.

 

Eurotunnel said there was ' nothing to indicate' the fire was started deliberately.

Accident or not, it was terrifying for those who heard a series of explosions as the affected train came to a sudden halt, and the tunnel filled with smoke.

A British lorry driver is understood to have used a hammer to smash windows on the train to allow a trapped group of drivers to escape.



Huge blaze: French and British firefighters in the maintenance tunnel preparing to fight the fire that broke out in the Channel tunnel on a freight shuttle

Six were hospitalised after inhaling the fumes while eight others suffered cuts and bruises.

Patrique Lejein, 50, from Belgium, said: 'We heard two loud bangs, like explosions, and suddenly thick smoke swept through the carriage.

'The train came to a grinding halt, we were all thrown forward, the lights went out, and there was mayhem.
People immediately flocked to the emergency exit, but it was impossible to open it.
'Smoke stopped us from seeing anything or breathing properly. In the end, one of the men found a hammer from somewhere and we were able to smash one of the windows and climb out.

Kent Police said Operation Stack  -  its programme for queuing excess lorries on the motorways  -  was due to last at least over the weekend.
 
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